Sunday Scaries: Jay Woodcroft, you will always be a star
By Kylie Salai
5 months agoI’d say happy Sunday, but there’s nothing to be happy about it.
I’m partially kidding, because I’m trying this new thing where I don’t let the Oilers dictate my mental health, but holy is this terrible.
On Monday, the Oilers took on the Vancouver Canucks for the third time this season, and to no surprise, they lost their third straight game. Mattias Ekholm opened the scoring before Quinn Hughes tied the game up at one apiece. Suter and Boeser each tallied one more goal to make the score 3-1 before Draisaitl scored his fifth of the season to cut the lead to one. That would be the last goal scored by the Oilers before the Canucks put it on with Hoglander and J.T Miller each scoring a goal and Boeser scoring his second of the game to extend the lead to 6-2.
This game just emphasized the holes in the Oilers lineup that we have been staring in the face all season. With Jack Campbell being waived and sent down, goaltending was a huge one.
Campbell opened up post-game in his return to the AHL and said that he felt he’s been playing well. At some point, we need to recognize that there are five guys in front of him at almost all times that aren’t performing at all either. I’m not saying that he is innocent in this in that he has actually been playing well. Clearly, he has not been, but he is not solely to blame.
This was proven when the Oilers lost without Jack Campbell in net on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks.
In a game that could have made or broken the Oilers, Tyler explained it well.
The Oilers started out… not terribly? Until they let in a goal on the Sharks’ sixth goal of the game then Zetterlund was left wide open in the slot (anyone seen this before?), and Hertl was able to feed him the pick to put the Sharks up one nothing. Going into the second period down 1-0 wasn’t what anybody had imagined for this game, but I’m sure nobody was overly surprised either. Anyways, in the second period, Darnell Nurse was able to tie up the game before Hertl responded making the score 2-1 heading into the third. Entering the third, the Oilers had to score one goal to push it to overtime to, at the very least, walk away with a point. They would proceed to score a goal in the third period, however, it would come after Filip Zadina had already done the same for the Sharks, leaving the final score at 2-1.
Finally, on Saturday the Oilers were able to secure the win with a Zach Hyman hat-trick and an extra tally from Dylan Holloway in front of the Nation Vacation to Seattle.
This gave me hope that Jay Woodcroft would live to see another day, but he was fired this morning after what could be the momentum-swing win the Oilers needed.
The Oilers have also hired Kris Knoblauch as their new head coach announcing the firing and hiring in the same tweet, so this was very clearly pre-planned. If you’re wondering, “who the heck is Kris Knoblauch,” you will be thrilled to know that he has no NHL head coaching experience and that he was the head coach of the Erie Otters from 2012 to 2017. This is not what the team needed.
I firmly believe that even if the Oilers do turn it around and go on a heater, it has nothing to do with the new coach. As I previously mentioned, this win feels like it was finally the one the Oilers were going to use to turn this tire fire season around. But the firing of a coach they loved made that win feel like a loss.
The timing of the firing is reminding me of exactly what happened with the Canucks and Bruce Boudreau last season. They waited until it was convenient for them to fire him, allowing him to win a game and get his hopes up.
Not to mention that Jay Woodcroft was never the problem.
Oilersnation is not happy about this; the following are my favourite tweets that have come from this tragedy.
(yes some of my favourite tweets are my own…)
Here’s to hoping that the Oilers’ next win can be fully celebrated, and is followed by another win.
Coming up this week in Oilers hockey
On Monday, the Oilers look to extend their massive one-game winning streak to two for the first time this season on home ice against the New York Islanders. Not only is this very possible, but very, very necessary for them to get back on track this season.
The Oilers will also take on the Seattle Kraken for the second time in five days when they visit Rogers Place on Wednesday. The Oilers have proven that this is a Winable game for them, and they’re going to have to make sure that they do win this because from there on it gets tough.
Saturday, they take a trip to Florida, where they will face the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers — two very tough games for this team.
So, of the three games this week, plus the Florida game next Monday, the Oilers could optimistically go 2-2, or 1-2-1, the more realistic route.
I would be okay with one win this week because it’s more than we’ve seen in a while, but to get back on track and get their confidence back, the Oilers pretty much need to go 2-2 at the bare minimum these next four games.
Anyway, I hope you aren’t taking the Woodcroft news as hard as I am so you can enjoy your Sunday.
Until next time!
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